Elegy for The Bhuttos By Aziz Sanghur

Elegy for The Bhuttos is a short documentary, produced, directed and written by Aziz Sanghur. Mr. Sanghur is a documentary film-maker from Pakistan. The documentary shows that Bhutto's family was politician and leader who left an indelible mark on the country they loved, and the country they died for. Benazir Bhutto followed her father into politics and both of them died because of it - he was executed in 1979, she fell victim to an apparent suicide bomb attack. Her two brothers also suffered violent deaths. Like the Nehru-Gandhi family in India, the Bhuttos of Pakistan are one of the world's most famous political dynasties. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that, 4th President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. Bhutto was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)— the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan— and served as its chairman until his execution in 1979 after the Supreme Court of Pakistan controversially sentenced him to death for authorizing the murder of a political opponent, in a move that many believe was done under the directives of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Mir Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto was an elder son of the former President and former Prime minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the younger brother of Benazir Bhutto—who also served twice as Prime minister. A strategist by academia, Bhutto was killed in a controversial police encounter in 1996 during the premiership of Benazir Bhutto. Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani woman socialist-democratic politician who was the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan, and also the 3rd chairwoman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)—a democratic socialist, centre-left, and the largest political party in Pakistan. Bhutto was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state, having twice been Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms (1988--1990; 1993--1996). She was Pakistan's first and to date only female prime minister and was the eldest child of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and former First Lady of Pakistan Nusrat Bhutto, and was the wife of current President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari. Noted for her charismatic authority and political astuteness, Benazir Bhutto made initiatives for Pakistan's economy, national security, and implemented social capitalist policies for industrial development. Bhutto was sworn in as Prime Minister for the first time in 1988 at the age of 35, but was removed from office 20 months later under the order of conservative President Ghulam Ishaq Khan on grounds of alleged corruption. However, Benazir Bhutto and the Pakistan Peoples Party won the 1993 parliamentary elections and was sworned as Prime minister. A serious coup d'état was attempted by the senior officers of Pakistan Army, however, the M.I. led by Major-General Ali Kuli Khan Khattak exposed the culprits behind this plot. In retaliation, Benazir Bhutto ordered the trial and the dissidents were detained in the military jails by her government. After this attempt, her term was cut short and her government was dismissed in 1996 on similar corruption charges, this time by her party's own hand-picked and elected President Farooq Leghari. Bhutto again participated and campaigned in the 1997 Parliamentary elections, but was defeated in by a large-scale margin by the conservative leader Navaz Sharif. In the wake of these elections, Benazir Bhutto departed from Pakistan and went into self-imposed exile in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 1998. After 9 years of self-exile, Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan on 18 October 2007, after having reached an understanding with Military President General Pervez Musharraf by which she was granted amnesty and all corruption charges were withdrawn. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on 27 December 2007, after departing PPP's last rally in the city of Rawalpindi, two weeks before the scheduled Pakistani general election of 2008 in which she was a leading opposition candidate. The following year, she was named one of seven winners of the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights. Begum Nusrat Bhutto was an Iranian-Pakistani who was the wife of the 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, serving as the First Lady of Pakistan during his premiership from 1971 until Bhutto's removal in 1977. She became her husband's successor as the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from 1979 to 1983. She was also the mother of the first and only female Pakistan Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto. She died on October 23, 2011 in Dubai due a long suffering illness of Alzheimer's disease. Nusrat Bhutto was buried next to the grave of her husband Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto graveyard on October 25, 2011.